How much does a website audit cost?
Website audits range from free automated scans to five-figure consulting engagements. The honest answer is that price tracks who does the work and how much interpretation you get - here is the map.
Free automated tools: $0
Free scanners (Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights, and free tiers of audit platforms including AuditHQ’s quick scan) surface real issues in minutes. Their limits: most cover one dimension each, raw findings arrive without business context, and you assemble the picture yourself. As a starting point they are genuinely useful; as a deliverable to a client they are not.
Automated platforms: tens of dollars
Platform audits like AuditHQ sit here: a full multi-suite report is A$99 one-off, or from A$49/month for ongoing monitoring. You get breadth (technical, marketing, security, privacy, AI visibility, reputation and more in one pass), findings ranked by severity with evidence, and a client-ready document - without consultant day rates.
Freelancer audits: hundreds
A freelance SEO or developer typically charges a few hundred to around a thousand dollars for a manual audit of one dimension - usually SEO or performance. Quality varies enormously with the individual. The good ones add interpretation a tool cannot; the mediocre ones paste tool output into a document.
Agency audits: thousands
Agencies commonly quote from around one thousand to several thousand dollars for a comprehensive audit, and specialised engagements (accessibility compliance, security penetration testing) run well beyond that. You are paying for senior eyes, methodology, and a roadmap conversation - appropriate when the site is business-critical and the budget follows.
The real question: what happens after the audit?
An audit is only worth what gets fixed. A $5,000 report that sits in a drawer loses to a $99 report someone acts on. Whatever tier you choose, insist on findings ranked by impact with concrete next steps - and budget for the fixing, not just the finding.
A sensible sequence for most businesses
Run a free scan first to see where problems concentrate. If the findings are substantial, a platform-tier full report gives you the prioritised list for two figures. Bring in a freelancer or agency when you need hands to implement or when a specialised deep-dive (security testing, accessibility certification) is genuinely required.
Frequently asked questions
Are free website audits any good?
Free scans catch real issues and are the right first step. Their gap is breadth and interpretation - most check one dimension, and none tell you what matters most for your business. Treat a free audit as a diagnosis starter, not the full picture.
What should a website audit include?
At minimum: technical health (speed, mobile, crawlability), search visibility, security signals, and conversion basics. Increasingly it should also cover AI visibility - whether ChatGPT and other assistants can find and cite you - plus privacy compliance and reputation signals.
How long does a website audit take?
Automated platform audits run in minutes (AuditHQ’s full nine-suite audit takes about 5 to 8 minutes). Manual freelancer audits typically take days; agency audits a week or more. Speed matters less than whether the output is prioritised and actionable.